Northern Caucasus and South Ossetia: people and destinies

29-02-2012 Photo gallery

In April 2011, ICRC photographer Marco Kokić travelled to the Northern Caucasus and South Ossetia. In the course of this visit he met those people who most needed the support of the International Committee of the Red Cross. The photographer's lens captured fragments from the lives of these very different people, united by a common fate and a common pain. Every photo is a story in itself. Kokić focuses not only on the difficulties these people face but also on the fortitude that helps them overcome adversity and preserve hope.

The head of the ICRC's Nazran office visits Raiskhan and her family. Raiskhan is bringing up the two sons of her nephew, who died in 2010. Magomed is six and Mikhail is eleven. Their mother left the family immediately after Magomed's birth. The family has received a cow, clothes and financial assistance from the ICRC.

A member of ICRC staff talks to Evgeniya, one of the beneficiaries of the Miloserdiye programme, which involves visiting elderly people living on their own and providing assistance to them. Evgeniya was born in Chechnya. She worked at a wagon works in Norilsk, Siberia for twenty-two years and then returned to her homeland, living in Grozny during the conflict.

Zura had to leave Chechnya twice but returned to Grozny in 2005. She was wounded during the hostilities and became a patient of the ICRC-supported physical rehabilitation centre. Her husband and two sons are unemployed and Zura receives a disability allowance. The ICRC provided her with a sewing machine as a part of a microeconomic initiatives programme, enabling her to earn a small supplementary income.

Kursum's two sons went missing in 2003 and she has heard nothing from or about them since. She cannot stop thinking about her lost children. The ICRC has provided her with the materials needed to build a vegetable greenhouse. This distracts her from her grief, at least for a while.

Mariam cooks traditional food in the centre, which hosts 20 families. The territory around the village was mined and the ordnance remaining in the ground is a danger to residents. The ICRC provided Mariam with the necessary cooking equipment as part of a microeconomic initiatives programme. Her son went missing in 2003 and none of Mariam's family have jobs, so this opportunity to start a small business provides her with a small income.

Roza's son and grandson look out of a window. Roza received a cow under an ICRC microeconomic initiatives programme. Now she makes sour cream and cheese, which she sells to earn extra income. There are six people in Roza's family, two of whom are mine victims.

Roza talks to a member of ICRC staff. She received a cow under an ICRC microeconomic initiatives programme. Now she makes sour cream and cheese, which she sells to earn extra income. There are six people in Roza's family, two of whom are mine victims.

Sergo and Zamira pose for the camera with a member of the ICRC's protection department. The couple communicate with their children in Georgia via Red Cross messages and also via telephone when ICRC staff come to their home once a month.